Three major Lithuanian political parties on nearly equal grounds before elections: survey

The popularity of Lithuania's ruling Social Democratic Party has fallen slightly in the run-up to Sunday's parliamentary elections, while two other major competing parties improved their positions, a poll showed on Tuesday.

In September, 15.6 percent of respondents indicated their first choice was the social democrats when asked who they would vote for, down from 17.2 percent a month ago, a survey conducted by Spinter Tyrimai agency and local website Delfi showed.

Lithuanian Peasant and Greens' Union followed in the second place, with 14 percent of respondents support, up from 12.4 percent back in August.

The center-right Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats ranked third with 13.7 percent of support, compared with 10.5 percent a month ago.

According to the political analysts interviewed by Delfi, the current popularity rates show that the three parties will compete for winning national elections on a nearly equal basis.

"Given the surveys recently conducted by all polling agencies, all three parties have nearly equal chances in the multi-member constituency in the run-up to the elections," Mazvydas Jastramskis, political scientist at Vilnius Institute of International Relations and Political Science, was quoted as saying by Delfi.

However, the ruling social democrats should be anxious as their support has been decreasing for nearly half a year, he added.

"There is a risk of losing leading positions as support for the ruling party is close to that of opposition parties; Lithuanian voting dynamics show that people tend to 'punish' ruling forces," Jastramskis noted.

"We have three parties at the line of take-off, their positions are similar," Ignas Zokas, director of polling agency Spinter Tyrimai said in an interview with Delfi.

The Labour Party, also a member of the current ruling coalition, ranked fourth at the survey and was the preferred party for 5.2 percent of respondents, while the country's Liberals' Movement equilibrated on a 5-percent threshold to enter the parliament with 5.0 percent of respondent's support.

Other parties did not get over the 5.0 percent barrier, the Spinter and Delfi survey showed.

The survey was conducted between Sept. 19 and 27.

Lithuania's parliamentary election to determine which parties will fill the 141-seat Seimas will be held on Oct. 9 and 23. Endit